A release said the report was initiated by Tata Trusts in 2019 and the fourth edition of the report was in collaboration with the Centre for Social Justice, Common Cause, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, DAKSH, TISS–Prayas, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, and How India Lives.
New Delhi: A new report called the 2025 India Justice Report, released on Tuesday, reveals that there are only 15 judges for every million people in the country. This is much lower than what was recommended by the Law Commission in 1987, which had suggested 50 judges per million population.
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“For 1.4 billion people, India has 21,285 judges, or approximately 15 judges per million population. This continues to be significantly below the 1987 law commission’s recommendation of 50 judges per million population,” said the 2025 India Justice Report, which ranks states on the delivery of justice in the country.
The report pointed out that many judge posts are still lying vacant, especially in the High Courts.
“While the vacancies in high courts stood at 33 per cent of the total sanctioned strength, the report claimed 21 per cent vacancies in 2025, indicating a high workload for the existing judges.”
This shortage of judges has led to a huge burden on those already working.
“Nationally, in the district courts, the average workload is 2,200 cases per judge. In the Allahabad and Madhya Pradesh High Courts, the caseload per judge amounts to 15,000,” the report said.
There has been some improvement in the number of women judges, especially in district courts.
“The overall share of women judges, the report said, in the district judiciary increased from 30 per cent in 2017 to 38.3 per cent, and it increased from 11.4 per cent to 14 per cent in the high courts in 2025.”
But women are still underrepresented in higher courts, especially as Chief Justices.
“There is a higher share of women judges in the district courts as compared to the high courts and the Supreme Court. Currently, there is only one woman chief justice across the 25 high courts,” the report said.
Delhi district courts stood out positively in this regard.
“The report said Delhi district courts were among judicial branches with the lowest vacancies in the country with 11 per cent, and in which women comprised 45 per cent judges.”
Representation of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in the judiciary is still very low.
“In the district judiciary, only five per cent of judges belong to scheduled tribes and 14 per cent are from scheduled castes. Of the 698 high court judges appointed since 2018, only 37 judges are from SC and ST categories,” it added.
On the other hand, Other Backward Classes (OBCs) had better representation.
“The overall representation of other backward castes in the judiciary was 25.6 per cent,” the report said.
The report also found that spending on the judiciary is very low across the country.
“The national per capita spend on legal aid was Rs. 6.46 per annum whereas the national per capita spend on the judiciary stood at Rs. 182,” it added.
“No state spends more than one per cent of its total annual expenditure on the judiciary,” the report claimed.
A major problem highlighted in the report is the long pendency of court cases. Except for a few states, many High Courts are dealing with very old cases.
“Barring Karnataka, Manipur, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Tripura, one in every two cases have been pending for more than three years in all high courts.”
Several states are facing severe backlogs in district courts too.
“At the district courts in Andaman and Nicobar, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Goa, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, over 40 per cent of all cases have been pending for over three years.”
The situation is also worrisome in Delhi courts.
“One in every five cases, the report said, were pending for more than five years in Delhi, and two per cent were pending for more than 10 years.”
Workload for judges in Delhi has gone up since 2017.
“Each district court judge in Delhi had an average workload of 2,023 cases in 2024, an increase from 1,551 in 2017, and lower than the national average of 2,200. It could achieve a case clearance rate of 78% in 2024, one of the lowest in the country. Between 2017 and 2024, Delhi has achieved a 100 per cent CCR only once in 2023,” the report said.
The report clearly said that urgent reforms are needed in India’s justice system.
The report was stated to highlight the need for immediate and foundational corrections while flagging the urgent filling of vacancies and increased representation.
This is the fourth edition of the India Justice Report, which was first started in 2019.
A release said the report was initiated by Tata Trusts in 2019 and the fourth edition of the report was in collaboration with the Centre for Social Justice, Common Cause, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, DAKSH, TISS–Prayas, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, and How India Lives.
Previous Year India Justice Report
India Justice Report 2022
Released in April 2023, the 2022 report highlights several critical findings:
- Undertrial Population: Approximately 77% of prisoners in India are undertrials, indicating prolonged pre-trial detentions.
- Judicial Vacancies: No state or union territory has a full complement of judges at both High Court and district court levels.
- Police Diversity: Karnataka is the only state that has fulfilled its quotas for SC, ST, and OBC representation among police officers and constables.
- Legal Aid Clinics: The number of legal services clinics dropped from 14,159 in 2020 to 4,742 in 2022, leading to one clinic serving an average of 127 villages.
- Top Performers:
- Large and Mid-Sized States: Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana.
- Small States: Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, and Tripura.
India Justice Report 2020
The 2020 edition, building upon the inaugural 2019 report, continued to evaluate states based on the same four pillars. It provided comparative analyses to track improvements or declines in each state’s structural and financial capacity to deliver justice. The report emphasized the importance of data-driven assessments to inform policy and drive reforms.
India Justice Report 2019
As the first edition, the 2019 report established a baseline for assessing the justice delivery system across Indian states. Key observations included:
- Vacancies: Kerala had the least vacancies across police, prisons, legal aid, and judiciary.
- Prison Overcrowding: Almost all prisons in the country were over-occupied.
- Legal Aid Spending: Approximately 75 paise per annum were spent on free legal aid, with no state fully utilizing the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) budget.
- Judicial Vacancies: About 25% of posts were vacant in the high courts of each state.
- Pending Cases: Approximately 28 million cases were pending in subordinate courts.
